A variety of tools and other equipment are used in downhole, wellbore environments. For example, a progressing cavity pump may be utilized in producing petroleum and other useful fluids from production wells. When a progressing cavity pump system is used, a production tubing is disposed within a wellbore to extend through the wellbore to the progressing cavity pump system disposed at a specific location within the well. The progressing cavity pump can be deployed or retrieved through the center of the production tubing, via a wireline.
In operation, fluids contained in an underground formation enter the wellbore via perforations formed through a wellbore casing adjacent a production formation. Fluids, such as petroleum, flow from the formation and collect in the wellbore. The pump, such as the progressing cavity pump, moves the production fluids upwardly through the production tubing to a desired collection point.
Progressing cavity pump systems, as well as other devices and systems, often are deployed by a wireline and are retrievable by a wireline. The wireline is utilized to lower the retrievable object through the hollow center of the production tubing to a landing nipple of the production tubing at a desired location in the wellbore. The retrievable object may be sealed to an interior surface of the landing nipple by an appropriate seal to prevent drainage of the production tubing as produced fluid is pumped or lifted towards the surface of the earth.
For example, in a progressing cavity pump system, the system typically includes a downhole, latching device, such as an Otis style X-lock. The latching device includes the seal or seals that act against the interior surface of the production tubing to prevent drainage. Additionally, the latching device may be coupled to a wireline to facilitate both deployment and retrieval of the progressing cavity pump.
This conventional arrangement works well if the wellbore remains generally vertical, but it can be difficult to move an object through a deviated portion of a wellbore. For example, wellbores may be deviated thirty degrees, forty five degrees or even ninety degrees from a generally vertical orientation. The wireline simply is not able to force the object through these deviated portions of the wellbore to the desired end location. Stiffer deployment mechanisms, such as coiled tubing, can be used in place of a wireline to push the objects through a deviated well. However, such mechanisms tend to be more expensive and more difficult to use.
It would be advantageous to have a pump-down tool that could be attached to the downhole components, e.g. progressing cavity pump, that would allow the downhole tool or tools to be moved through a deviated well while connected to a wireline.